To help visitors find treasures in its vast holdings, the British Museum presents COMPASS, which is based on a database of around 5000 objects selected from the Museum's collections. Simple keyword searches work well in COMPASS, and searches can be limited to a particular index. Who? searches for a particular person, What? searches for particular objects, How? for processes and materials, and Where/When? for geography and date. COMPASS automatically adds the word and between words, just like Google. Object pages include detailed information, written for the average museum go-er, with links into an online glossary, although we were unable to discover why a search on sextant returned astrolabes (consulting another dictionary revealed that the astrolabe was an nautical instrument used prior to the sextant). There are also guided tours, on a huge list of subjects from 100 Views of Mount Fuji to the Wetwang Chariot Burial, with Chinese Jade, several Egypt tours, and over 45 Highlights of the British Museum in between. Another great way to approach COMPASS is to try the Galleries search (found on the search page) where selecting any one of about 35 gallery names displays all the objects in that room.
Comments